Rapper hangs a kid in his video

[PeterPan 0]

15 hours ago, gag said:

Trust me sis no one thinks this is woke nor do they think it's acceptable.

OT: Isn't XXX a woman-beater? I hate that he's still popular. 

Wait hes popular? Cause I legit never really heard anything of him

[PeterPan 0]

Another reason I dont listen to rap

[NCgaga 4,318]

2 hours ago, Earthling said:

Thank you. Finally someone with well informed ideas on race issues to refute some of the ignorant comments I see here on ggd. 

I think half of us get the concept. BUT, the point is, some of us view it as tasteful or distasteful. It crosses the line for us - in more ways than one. Would I have traveled down that road to portray a similar message? No. He did, and that's fine. that's the point of art...To have dialogue. I completely disagreed with Gaga when she had someone throwing up on her on stage. But, it was her form of expression at that time. 

[Earthling 3,688]

1 minute ago, NCgaga said:

I think half of us get the concept. BUT, the point is, some of us view it as tasteful or distasteful. It crosses the line for us - in more ways than one. Would I have traveled down that road to portray a similar message? No. He did, and that's fine. that's the point of art...To have dialogue. I completely disagreed with Gaga when she had someone throwing up on her on stage. But, it was her form of expression at that time. 

But isn't the fact that people are finding this distasteful a point of contention?

The #1 film at the box office right now "It" contains imagery of a white child being hung plus numerous scenes of borderline graphic violence towards white children yet I don't see many offended by that.

Why only when a person of colour does it to comment on racial violence is it in bad taste?

[Ryusei 60,889]

Hope he gets arrested for a long time for his abuse trying to act all artsy when it's all with a clear underlying hate in mind

[RepentingSinner 2,642]

I dont get the big deal.

[Applause 650]

Wtf.  This is sickening... 

[Bebe 16,989]

4 hours ago, NCgaga said:

I think half of us get the concept. BUT, the point is, some of us view it as tasteful or distasteful. It crosses the line for us - in more ways than one. Would I have traveled down that road to portray a similar message? No. He did, and that's fine. that's the point of art...To have dialogue. I completely disagreed with Gaga when she had someone throwing up on her on stage. But, it was her form of expression at that time. 

It's fine to have different tastes, this video was supposed to be controversial and confrontational - it was supposed to make you feel sick. Whether you like that effect, whether you think it was effective, that's a lot to do with subjective taste.

I for one appreciate that he confronted me, I appreciate that he made me feel deeply disturbed. I like that he pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me feel something with his work, even if it was unpleasant. You don't need to agree with that, but the main issue I had with your original comment was that you said:

"Is this what he wants? To some how justify the killings of black people by hanging a white kid? I dislike the people that watch the video and think, you know this is ok...just because it is a white kid. You're becoming equally as racist and you don't even realize it. "

That's just something I completely disagree with. He didn't try to somehow justify any killings, he didn't try to present the hanging of the child as something that was ok due to the kid being white and those who appreciate the video are not of the opinion that hanging white kids is okay...

I'm not trying to convince you to like or appreciate the video but at least watch the video, think about how it made you feel, think about how he tried to make you feel and think about why he included that disturbing scene before critiquing it.

It just seems unfair to accuse XXXTentacion of trying to justify any killings, when the entire premise of the video was that such violence is serious, grotesque and tragic. And it seems unfair to paint those defending the final scene as racists who approve of hanging white children when they were no doubt equally disturbed and sickened by that scene.

[NCgaga 4,318]

8 hours ago, Earthling said:

But isn't the fact that people are finding this distasteful a point of contention?

The #1 film at the box office right now "It" contains imagery of a white child being hung plus numerous scenes of borderline graphic violence towards white children yet I don't see many offended by that.

Why only when a person of colour does it to comment on racial violence is it in bad taste?

"It" is not racially motivated. So it's not comparable. The reason why the music video is controversial is because the white kid is being hung based on the color of his skin. 

 

[StrawberryBlond 14,331]

This is one of the most offensive music videos I've ever seen. When you drag kids into it, I'm not accepting the "art shouldn't be censored" excuse. Once you go that far, it's not art. You've just got issues. I don't care what message he's trying convey, there are always better ways to do it than this. Controversy is taking the place of creative means to conveying messages now. Talented people can utilise controversy in their work but there is a line to be drawn and this is crossing it. You do not use children in controversial works, that's just a no go area. I don't care if they've had permission from their parents. In that case, the parents are f**ked in the head. The parents know what's going on, the kids don't. I want to take a good look at the parents who allowed this. They should be ashamed of themselves. And any pro-peace message he puts in the end has no correlation to what he's shown earlier. If this was the message he wanted to convey, he wouldn't have done what he did earlier. And I'm also disgusted by the teacher being killed earlier in the video, which most people aren't even bringing up. Speaking as someone who's aunt's a teacher and frequently has to deal with unruly kids with problems (and we're talking primary age kids, at that), there is nothing funny about scenes like this. I mean, just last week, she had to deal with a 9 year old boy (in the space of one day) hitting his teacher with a chair twice, slapping a girl across the face with his school tie, grabbing a pair of scissors and running at her with them, then when the teacher stood in front of her to protect her, he got threatened with the scissors instead. And this kid who's clearly got problems is still deemed not bad enough yet for a special detention institution. Violence towards teachers is not funny, no matter what reasons are behind it. Even if the suggestion is that white teachers are racist, this is not an acceptable revenge fantasy.

It's really typical how far certain black artists will push things now to get attention and critical praise. Because no matter how controversial it is, critics go wild for this stuff. It certainly wouldn't be the first time critics have praised criminals. So much for claims of white supremacy in the media, huh? And it's also typical how a video such as this is allowed on YouTube without age restriction, yet far lesser things have been censored or removed. Again, double standards for black on white racism. And the like/dislike ratio on this video should totally be reversed. Just shows what we find acceptable in today's society. This kind of video is, ironically, the kind of thing that will make certain white people want to revolt, the stuff that breeds Nazis and KKK members. Yet, it thinks it's healing racial relations. Wonders will never cease.

On 9/14/2017 at 2:37 PM, Oivind said:

I like it. It makes me very uncomfortable to see a kid about the same age as my own kids get hung, but that's the whole point. People should discuss the message of the video, instead of being outraged and dismissing it.

You can do both, you know.

On 9/14/2017 at 3:39 PM, DemeLarell said:

This is kind of what his career is built upon. Very hard to swallow visuals and lyrics to help open dialogue. If you listen to his album he talks about depression, suicide,and other topics people usually don't talk about to help those with this issue. 

As far as the kid being hanged: I really love how there is such an uproar about the one white person in the video being hanged when there are countless black people being hanged and being victims of police brutality in this video. Then after the white kid was hanged the music stopped and he ended the video with a monologue about equality and saying basically everything in the video was absurd and nobody should be hating one another like that. 

1. Don't judge this video off of an op that was misleading. 

2. Watch the video. You will be so surprised with the message of it. I was so shook because I didn't expect him to speak on race issues. 

But he's hardly the first of his genre to talk about this stuff on his album right now. Confessional, hard-hitting, 'real' stuff is all the rage. It's not even just an urban thing. Emo bands were talking about depression and suicide when he was still a kid. It's nothing new.

The difference between the blacks vs whites getting hanged is because the black ones are adults who have made the personal decision to be in this video. The kids, on the other hand, got second-hand permission from their parents and aren't aware of what they're truly being involved with. That's the despicable part. And as for the police brutality, they were depicting real life events and even the footage is somewhat owned by the media, so it's deemed ok to showcase it (though I personally disagree with any video depicting genuine death being allowed to be online).

And as I said previously, if he truly believed in all things he said in that outro, he wouldn't have made the video he just did. And you didn't expect him to speak on race issues? He did that through songs and visuals up until that point. He's an underground, bizarre performer. Of course he's going to speak about racial issues.

On 9/14/2017 at 4:10 PM, Bebe said:

I knew it would be XXXTentacion before I opened the thread  

It's definitely supposed to be controversial, but it's also topical especially when considering the poor biracial boy that was lynched recently. It is interesting that there are scenes of himself getting hung, along with other black men - there are references to Emmett Till (the black child hung in Mississippi in 1955), Philando Castile and Rodney King that are examples of real world violence - but the outrage is over the scene where the white child is depicted hanging. It's interesting.

It's supposed to make you feel sick, it's supposed to make you feel extremely uncomfortable - but it would probably be helpful if people looked past that initial feeling and asked why they feel that way and why the scene was included. The white kid is allowed a certain amount of innocence not granted to black kids, or black men. We don't see the white child and pass any judgment, we don't see him as a violent criminal, we see him for what he is - innocent - and we see his death as tragic, undeserved and gut wrenching. We get a visceral feeling we might not get when we hear about yet another black teenager killed. We've become so desensitised to these stories and are not confronted with the real, disgusting reality - it's merely described to us in a cold, matter-of-fact way.

The depiction of this white child being hung is supposed to parallel the real violence african americans face and challenge the audience to view that real violence in the same way, with the same outrage. It's supposed to challenge you to see a child like Emmett Till, not as just some historical person, but as an actual child who was hung in front of an audience of people who came to watch. It's supposed to challenge you to feel the same amount of gut-level disgust at the current real world killings of unarmed black men as you felt when confronted with this depiction of such extreme violence against someone society views as inherently innocent.

His monologue at the end is about how such violence is disgusting and how it needs to end is really him spelling out the entire message of the video.

I know exactly why I feel that way - because you don't put kids in a controversial video, even if what you're doing isn't real. I certainly didn't view it as the audience are going to see the white kid as automatically more innocent because he's white. That isn't the issue. The issue is a child is depicted as if he's being hung. That's unacceptable no matter what his race is. This is a completely different thing to a real life killing happening to an adult. The two aren't even in the same ball park.

And that's another thing that gets me - assuming that white people have no compassion for anyone but themselves. That they need something like this to "wake them up." Most of us already find this stuff shocking. Very, very few of us find the unlawful killing of anyone to be acceptable and those of us who do are either locked up or should be. It's the same school of thought that feels a need to state "If you're a parent, you might find this footage distressing" before any shocking footage involving a child, as if they believe a child-less person will be indifferent to it or enjoy it or something. Compassion can be present in all of us, it's not just limited to the mistreated people of society. It's the suggestion that I didn't have the compassion in the first place that offends me more than anything.

On 9/14/2017 at 6:02 PM, Oivind said:

Sure, but sometimes it's good to create some controversy. The funny thing is that I haven't seen any reactions to the footage of real-life killings in the video. Everyone is just talking about the fake hanging. That's all it is, even if the actor is a kid. Some people lose their kids for real, like the parents of the person being shot by the police in the video.

Because we've already processed those ones. And those involved adults, not children, which always puts a very different spin on it, real or fake. It hits my heart, even as someone with no children.

On 9/14/2017 at 6:11 PM, Oivind said:

Well said. This is exactly how I felt when I saw it. I just want to add one thing: He's probably trying to create more controversy by hanging the white kid, but I think most people (and certainly everyone here at Gaga Daily) would be equally disgusted if he hung the black kid. But I still like the fact that he's raising the question: Would everyone care as much if he chose the black kid?

Absolutely. Again, where does this idea come from of the majority of white people having no empathy for black people? It's extremely offensive to my race and all the good people in it. Judge on a case by case basis, not blanket statements. Even a "this is for white racists" disclaimer at the beginning would have made things a bit better. At least then I know it's not directed at me.

17 hours ago, Bebe said:

Yeah, I think that is a really interesting question.

I agree that there would still be outrage and controversy if a black kid was hung, but I also wonder if the reaction would have been "Yeah this is confronting and disgusting, BUT this did historically happen so ultimately it's forgivable because in the context of the video he is showing the audience the ugly truth".

He is depicting violence against Emmett Till, he does show the actual killing of Philando Castile cut with footage of a re-enactment, he does show footage of Rodney King actually getting beaten. They even show a reenactment of Heather Heyer getting hit and killed by the car and the Ferguson Riots. They could have hung the black child at the end and have the message be some variant of "It's still happening to us today" and I think it would have been more readily accepted as a political point tbh. 

I think a lot of the negative reactions I've seen, not just here, are based around this "Really??? Is this how you help ease race relations??? I get that he is trying to be a commentary of the lynching of African American's - but still, that doesn't make it okay to lynch a white kid" It's kind of this outrage over the idea he would depict this violence against a white child in order to make a political point.

It's impossible to prove that the controversy would have been lesser if a black child was hung, but considering the lack of interest in the other violence depicted in the video I wouldn't be surprised. I think it raises yet another question: Why is it okay to depict a black child hanging in order to make a political statement, but not okay to depict a while child hanging in order to make a political statement?

No, honestly, I don't think the sight of a child seemingly being hung will ever be justifiable in the eyes of the public regardless of the factors involved. It's crazy to think we're still debating if white people would be disgusted or not by the sight of a black child being hung in 2017. What an insult to the many good white people out there.

There was no way he was going to hang this black child. His entire video is an anti-white person message, regardless of what he tries to frame it as. If it was all reversed, a white artist would be called racist for this, no doubt, because we can't make controversial racial videos to make political statements. If we want equality, we have to start treating instances of black racism just as seriously as white racism.

I've said before that the reasons why the earlier violence was dismissed was that these are involving adults and those who have made their own choices, unlike the children. And no one was saying it was ok to hang a black child to make a political statement. We don't want to see any child being hanged, real or fake.

13 hours ago, Earthling said:

But isn't the fact that people are finding this distasteful a point of contention?

The #1 film at the box office right now "It" contains imagery of a white child being hung plus numerous scenes of borderline graphic violence towards white children yet I don't see many offended by that.

Why only when a person of colour does it to comment on racial violence is it in bad taste?

Not being racially motivated is the reason. But even so, I don't approve of children being used in any sort of controversial art, even film. There have recently been films where children have been put into terrible situations that they won't understand, that acting or not, might screw them up psychologically. It always chills me when I see kids in film being directed to act aggressive or mentally warped or like they're being abused, even swearing. Adults need to take more responsibility and keep kids out of it, both the makers of these kinds of media and the parents who allow it.

[DemeLarell 931]

9 minutes ago, StrawberryBlond said:

This is one of the most offensive music videos I've ever seen. When you drag kids into it, I'm not accepting the "art shouldn't be censored" excuse. Once you go that far, it's not art. You've just got issues. I don't care what message he's trying convey, there are always better ways to do it than this. Controversy is taking the place of creative means to conveying messages now. Talented people can utilise controversy in their work but there is a line to be drawn and this is crossing it. You do not use children in controversial works, that's just a no go area. I don't care if they've had permission from their parents. In that case, the parents are f**ked in the head. The parents know what's going on, the kids don't. I want to take a good look at the parents who allowed this. They should be ashamed of themselves. And any pro-peace message he puts in the end has no correlation to what he's shown earlier. If this was the message he wanted to convey, he wouldn't have done what he did earlier. And I'm also disgusted by the teacher being killed earlier in the video, which most people aren't even bringing up. Speaking as someone who's aunt's a teacher and frequently has to deal with unruly kids with problems (and we're talking primary age kids, at that), there is nothing funny about scenes like this. I mean, just last week, she had to deal with a 9 year old boy (in the space of one day) hitting his teacher with a chair twice, slapping a girl across the face with his school tie, grabbing a pair of scissors and running at her with them, then when the teacher stood in front of her to protect her, he got threatened with the scissors instead. And this kid who's clearly got problems is still deemed not bad enough yet for a special detention institution. Violence towards teachers is not funny, no matter what reasons are behind it. Even if the suggestion is that white teachers are racist, this is not an acceptable revenge fantasy.

It's really typical how far certain black artists will push things now to get attention and critical praise. Because no matter how controversial it is, critics go wild for this stuff. It certainly wouldn't be the first time critics have praised criminals. So much for claims of white supremacy in the media, huh? And it's also typical how a video such as this is allowed on YouTube without age restriction, yet far lesser things have been censored or removed. Again, double standards for black on white racism. And the like/dislike ratio on this video should totally be reversed. Just shows what we find acceptable in today's society. This kind of video is, ironically, the kind of thing that will make certain white people want to revolt, the stuff that breeds Nazis and KKK members. Yet, it thinks it's healing racial relations. Wonders will never cease.

You can do both, you know.

But he's hardly the first of his genre to talk about this stuff on his album right now. Confessional, hard-hitting, 'real' stuff is all the rage. It's not even just an urban thing. Emo bands were talking about depression and suicide when he was still a kid. It's nothing new.

The difference between the blacks vs whites getting hanged is because the black ones are adults who have made the personal decision to be in this video. The kids, on the other hand, got second-hand permission from their parents and aren't aware of what they're truly being involved with. That's the despicable part. And as for the police brutality, they were depicting real life events and even the footage is somewhat owned by the media, so it's deemed ok to showcase it (though I personally disagree with any video depicting genuine death being allowed to be online).

And as I said previously, if he truly believed in all things he said in that outro, he wouldn't have made the video he just did. And you didn't expect him to speak on race issues? He did that through songs and visuals up until that point. He's an underground, bizarre performer. Of course he's going to speak about racial issues.

I know exactly why I feel that way - because you don't put kids in a controversial video, even if what you're doing isn't real. I certainly didn't view it as the audience are going to see the white kid as automatically more innocent because he's white. That isn't the issue. The issue is a child is depicted as if he's being hung. That's unacceptable no matter what his race is. This is a completely different thing to a real life killing happening to an adult. The two aren't even in the same ball park.

And that's another thing that gets me - assuming that white people have no compassion for anyone but themselves. That they need something like this to "wake them up." Most of us already find this stuff shocking. Very, very few of us find the unlawful killing of anyone to be acceptable and those of us who do are either locked up or should be. It's the same school of thought that feels a need to state "If you're a parent, you might find this footage distressing" before any shocking footage involving a child, as if they believe a child-less person will be indifferent to it or enjoy it or something. Compassion can be present in all of us, it's not just limited to the mistreated people of society. It's the suggestion that I didn't have the compassion in the first place that offends me more than anything.

Because we've already processed those ones. And those involved adults, not children, which always puts a very different spin on it, real or fake. It hits my heart, even as someone with no children.

Absolutely. Again, where does this idea come from of the majority of white people having no empathy for black people? It's extremely offensive to my race and all the good people in it. Judge on a case by case basis, not blanket statements. Even a "this is for white racists" disclaimer at the beginning would have made things a bit better. At least then I know it's not directed at me.

No, honestly, I don't think the sight of a child seemingly being hung will ever be justifiable in the eyes of the public regardless of the factors involved. It's crazy to think we're still debating if white people would be disgusted or not by the sight of a black child being hung in 2017. What an insult to the many good white people out there.

There was no way he was going to hang this black child. His entire video is an anti-white person message, regardless of what he tries to frame it as. If it was all reversed, a white artist would be called racist for this, no doubt, because we can't make controversial racial videos to make political statements. If we want equality, we have to start treating instances of black racism just as seriously as white racism.

I've said before that the reasons why the earlier violence was dismissed was that these are involving adults and those who have made their own choices, unlike the children. And no one was saying it was ok to hang a black child to make a political statement. We don't want to see any child being hanged, real or fake.

Not being racially motivated is the reason. But even so, I don't approve of children being used in any sort of controversial art, even film. There have recently been films where children have been put into terrible situations that they won't understand, that acting or not, might screw them up psychologically. It always chills me when I see kids in film being directed to act aggressive or mentally warped or like they're being abused, even swearing. Adults need to take more responsibility and keep kids out of it, both the makers of these kinds of media and the parents who allow it.

I disagree. What I was talking about is the fact that ppl on here emphasized the color of the boy not the age which is hypocritical considering all the other images of black ppl in the video. And about whether you like the images or not.... that's just an opinion. I like the visuals. It's garnering a lot of attention to a serious subject matter. And he is doing it through his own eyes. And there is no reason to argue about whether we like it or not because it is all opinionated at the end of the day. 

 

When end did I ever said he was the "first" artist to speak on sensitive matters. 

Abd no I did not expect him to speak on racial issues because "Look At Me" had nothing to do with race matters. But I do get it. His most popular song + controversial visuals= attention to a topic he wants to share his opinion on. 

[StrawberryBlond 14,331]

2 minutes ago, DemeLarell said:

I disagree. What I was talking about is the fact that ppl on here emphasized the color of the boy not the age which is hypocritical considering all the other images of black ppl in the video. And about whether you like the images or not.... that's just an opinion. I like the visuals. It's garnering a lot of attention to a serious subject matter. And he is doing it through his own eyes. And there is no reason to argue about whether we like it or not because it is all opinionated at the end of the day. 

 

When end did I ever said he was the "first" artist to speak on sensitive matters. 

Abd no I did not expect him to speak on racial issues because "Look At Me" had nothing to do with race matters. But I do get it. His most popular song + controversial visuals= attention to a topic he wants to share his opinion on. 

The colour was important because the video was obviously depicting race issues and an anti-white agenda. And I hate how it's racist to state something is anti-white. Racism is racism, there is no rule book that states it can only happen to minorities. It's basically: "Look at all the bad things happening to these poor black people, let's turn the tables on this white crackers." Whether that was truly the message he wanted to convey, that's understandably how many will interpret it. And they have every right to. There is an abundance of messages in the media through music videos urging black people to stand up and retaliate towards police officers and the white race at large. This video is the ultimate manifestation of that. I have no problem with black people stating their feelings towards how white society treats them but if they truly want peace and equality, they'd want to bring it about in a much more respectful, mature way. If you want to make the ultimate power-holders think twice, insulting/frightening/threatening their homes and families will not butter them up to the cause. It's just common sense. And I didn't say anything about what I said not being an opinion. I thought it was obvious that any critique of art is just that.

You were suggesting that his form of art was new, like when you said that "he's talking about things no one else is." I just pointed out that there are others talking about this stuff and they were doing it before him as well. And just because he brings up serious issues that needs to be spoken about doesn't mean he has to put them out there in such a distasteful way.

[DemeLarell 931]

8 minutes ago, StrawberryBlond said:

The colour was important because the video was obviously depicting race issues and an anti-white agenda. And I hate how it's racist to state something is anti-white. Racism is racism, there is no rule book that states it can only happen to minorities. It's basically: "Look at all the bad things happening to these poor black people, let's turn the tables on this white crackers." Whether that was truly the message he wanted to convey, that's understandably how many will interpret it. And they have every right to. There is an abundance of messages in the media through music videos urging black people to stand up and retaliate towards police officers and the white race at large. This video is the ultimate manifestation of that. I have no problem with black people stating their feelings towards how white society treats them but if they truly want peace and equality, they'd want to bring it about in a much more respectful, mature way. If you want to make the ultimate power-holders think twice, insulting/frightening/threatening their homes and families will not butter them up to the cause. It's just common sense. And I didn't say anything about what I said not being an opinion. I thought it was obvious that any critique of art is just that.

You were suggesting that his form of art was new, like when you said that "he's talking about things no one else is." I just pointed out that there are others talking about this stuff and they were doing it before him as well. And just because he brings up serious issues that needs to be spoken about doesn't mean he has to put them out there in such a distasteful way.

Ok. This is just absurd.... go watch the video again. I don't think you gout the message. And picking apart minor things in my post is just.... let's just agree to disagree..... again. 

[DawnNutella 2,805]

The video is disgusting but I'm more concerned that this pretend lynching is getting more attention and outrage than the child that was really, in real life, actually lynched this week. I've hardly heard anything about that but a lot of people are talking about the video. The child in the video wasn't physically harmed but the other child was almost and could have easily been killed. 

[StrawberryBlond 14,331]

1 minute ago, DemeLarell said:

Ok. This is just absurd.... go watch the video again. I don't think you gout the message. And picking apart minor things in my post is just.... let's just agree to disagree..... again. 

How is it absurd? Why is it ok to tell a white person that they find a video being negative about their race to be offensive? And if they are offended, it's because they don't understand it? I've already watched it several times. Just because I don't agree with your conclusions doesn't mean I don't understand. I don't know how many times I have to explain this concept. I already said that if he truly believes in the quotes he recited at the end, he wouldn't have made the video like he did. I don't know what part of that statement shows a lack of understanding. I know you're not suggesting this but when you say this kinda thing it comes across like "You don't understand because you're white and can't truly connect." This is what leads to arguments. Like you said, just agree to disagree. And maybe don't dislike my posts in return when I haven't done it to you.